MEETING TRAVIS 4

Hi there,

Briefly...

My Travis McGee story is a sad one - for me.

Some years ago I was writing a tale about an older, resourceful ex- Guards Officer, who lived alone on a boat. He was able to move around the UK easily and he was self-employed as a 'Man Friday', a general purpose kind of guy. He got sidetracked into solving people's problems.

I wanted him to have the 'Robin Hood' spirit and not to make oodles of cash from his exploits. Sound familiar?

It was whilst researching for the book, that I found a couple of McGee novels. I had never heard of McGee at the time. I read The Deep Blue Good-by.

Naturally, my story has never seen the light of day. I don't think I could do any better, if anywhere near as well, so that's a relief for everyone!

Regards

John Alfred

My sister turned me on to Travis in the 1970s. I started with Nightmare in Pink, the second in the series, and was hooked. I collected and read them randomly, and re-read while waiting for the next. At some point in there I read them -- and reread them -- from book one forward, so at the time JDM died I was intimately familiar with the sequential history of our loose-jointed, scarred-knuckled tilter at windmills ... the man of my dreams.

Over the years I started reading the whole series again, about once a year, sometimes in order, sometimes at random. I can usually close my eyes and recite the next passage, but Travis never flags, never fails to delight me.

I recently started writing mystery books myself, and JDM has been my greatest and best influence and inspiration. John D. MacDonald is one of those authors you pray will never quit or die. But I'm grateful and happy that Travis found peace first, and hope JDM did too. I suspect he did.

Sabrina Scott, Nevada

I was thinking about TM today, so Googled JDM, and found the site. As a great fan of McGee, I would like to share with you that I first read a TM book in my early teens in Lansing MI, and I am 44 now. I read "A Tan and Sandy Silence", a book my Uncle Jim had when I was in the tenth grade. Needless to say, I was hooked. It was not until I joined the service that I could actually collect and read them all. Since then, I have gotten a couple friends to join in on the experience. As is the theme of most that share their stories....It only takes one book for the reader to realize that he or she must read them all. I sure wish there were just one more, the final book where TM explores his relationship with his daughter. Anyway....

Thanks for the chance to share

Sincerely,

John K. Lenon

Colorado Springs

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Hello! Found your JDM website and thought I'd tell you how I found JDM and Travis.

I fell in love with a Travis McGee type (though I didn't know it at the time) in 2007. As we were getting to know each other, he mentioned that his favorite author was JDM. Butch was killed in Dec., 07. One of his friends told me he loved the Travis McGee series, so I found the set on Ebay and started reading. Needless to say, I am hooked.

It is also interesting to me that I am gaining so much insight into Butch by reading these books. Butch graduated from HS in Ohio in 1969 and, after a year or so of jaunting all over the world, settled in Fl. and sold sailboats for 20 years with an attitude much like Travis'....when flush with money, quit working til you need more!

I am enjoying the books and plan to read more JDM when I am done with the TM series. His writing is just incredible and so full of casually-tossed-out truths....Thanks for your website!